See, that's cute, but missing the point to me. Kory's primary character trait wasn't being bombastic (Where on earth did they get "high-sounding; high-flown; inflated; pretentious" from Kory???) or intimidating, it was in her complete and utter emotional honesty.
Back before they met, Dick was seriously uptight, he was reaching a point where he wanted a life of his own, but was too tied to being Robin as in "Batman and Robin" for that to be easy, and he felt guilty for wanting that.
Ultimately it was Kory's completely uninhibited nature which helped him see it really WAS okay to have and express feelings, including resentment of the being in Bruce's shadow, and that helped him mature to the point where he no longer needed to be Robin, and indeed, couldn't be.